Great Grandmother Harriet Geder
I've had many
mentors that helped me and 'guided' me over the years since I got involved with
genealogy and family history. Mentors come in many different shapes and colors.
There are, of course, the experts in the field and the books they've written,
the family members who share the knowledge and information they have, and the
random acts of genealogical kindness coming from strangers. When people share
and develop a dialogue with like-spirited individuals, a kind of mentorship can
take place. My greatest mentors come from the Ancestors. When I slow down to
review the collected data, their spirit and wisdom prophetically appears. So,
these are my mentors. Are organizations like APG (Association of Professional
Genealogists) and BCG (Board for Certification of Genealogists ) meeting my
needs? To answer that question, I would have to first define my needs.
As an African
Ancestored genealogist and family historian I have a need to communicate with
folks who are sensitive, learned and entrenched in the African American
experience. I crave for the scholarship
that can come from one who has walked, talked and shed tears in the African
diaspora. There is a uniqueness and a particular-ness to the challenges in
researching our people that comes before and goes beyond the obvious 1870 brick
wall.
The challenges that
come before the 1870 brick wall include the reconstruction era, jim crow,
segregation, sharecropping, migration, lynching, voting rights, unfair and
unequal education, civil rights and downright subjugation and marginalization
of my people.
The challenges after
the 1870 brick wall include American slavery, the breaking and destroying of
the family unit, the denial of cultural and spiritual growth, and the complete
cruelty put upon my people.
Can organizations
like the APG and the BCG, with their leaders and membership provide the
requisite empathy, nurturing, and guidance that I need? Or is it time for a
more relevant and focused organization, built from the ground up, to see to the
needs of the African Ancestored genealogist and family historian? Does this
make sense? Does this resonate?
I would actually
love to witness and participate in such an organization. An organization, at
its core, that acknowledges Alex Haley's contributions, that acknowledges the
many gifted African Ancestored historians, researchers, genealogists,
sociologists, and cultural evangelists. An organization whose mission is to
teach, foster, and support its members. An organization that will implement its
own high academic standards and guidelines specific to the African diaspora.
That would be a
community to belong to.
Peace &
Blessings,
"Guided by the
Ancestors"
